For anybody not on our mailing list here is a copy of our 2026 newsletter:
Dear Guests, Friends, Colleagues, Family and Suppliers
Our last newsletter was sent just over two years ago in 2024. Many of you have asked for a more recent update so here goes.
The Liz at Lancaster Team
I posted news late last year about the guesthouse team. Fiona has joined to stand in for me when I am away – giving me greater freedom to see family and grandchildren who are too far away in the UK.
And Alick has finally agreed that he needs to retire for the second and final time. A South African citizen, he also has a home in Zimbabwe and when he returned home over Christmas, he found that it needed a lot of upkeep and TLC. His wife Joyce has been trying to persuade him to hang up his trowel and pruning shears for some time, and at last he has agreed. So, pleased as we are for him, it is with great sadness that we say goodbye. Alick and I have known each other for over 40 years.
Liz at Lancaster’s Year in Review
The guesthouse has maintained a steady high occupancy rate over the last 2 years finally recovering from the dire Covid Lockdowns. Despite rising costs, we have managed not to raise our rates significantly, while still maintaining excellent service levels.
Regular guests continue to return: those needing medical care in South Africa; many visiting family and friends; international consultants, journalists and academics; people on business; locals from other provinces; almost all with the oft repeated refrain of “We are home!”
Johannesburg: the city everyone loves to write off
No defensiveness – there is very good reason for the bad press ladled out to Jozi. The City is run by several Municipal-Owned-Entities which are in varying states of appalling disarray. Joburg residents have grown disillusioned with poor leadership, shocking service delivery, corruption and governance failures resulting in a move of many (known as “semigration”) to the DA-governed Western Cape. These challenges have not eased since the installation of a coalition government locally after the ANC lost its majority in 2025. So we await the local elections in November 2026.
But there are positive signs of a shift in direction. Not least of all was the end of loadshedding in April 2025. This was largely due to the Business for South Africa partnership with government. More on South Africa under strain but still making progress.
Against the Narrative: Jozi
However, despite all the negative press, Joburg is still very much open for business.
The city held a successful G20 [aka G19] summit in November 2025 with the obvious caveat that, like all locations in these situations, delegates were shown carefully curated parts of the city.
Property prices in Jozi have begun to turn the corner for the first time since the pandemic. Low inflation, improved political stability, growing safe-haven status globally, and greater consumer confidence, all seem to have contributed to this trend.
Joburg remains the economic hub of the Southern African region with a melting pot of different nationalities and ethnic groups who lend vibrancy, interest and texture to the city.
Never underestimate Joziites’ resilience and passion for their city. The signs are everywhere. Walking tours; Art Fairs (Latitudes, Contra, FNB Art Fair); exhibitions; film festivals; music and theatre; book fairs; sporting events – there are always too many choices.
Joburg Inner city rebuilding itself, one project at a time
The Maharishi Invincibility Institute [MII], together with partners Anglo (who have donated two buildings to the MII), the Jozi My Jozi coalition and Wits Business School, plan to create a huge educational network that stretches from Central Joburg to Wits and the University of Johannesburg. The MII has a solid track record having already educated more than 24,000 formerly unemployed young people, 21,000 of whom have found work across a wide range of sectors: in the fields of “business, finance, banking, technology, cybersecurity, entrepreneurship, management consultancy and more”. And September 2025 saw the official ribbon-cutting of a full-size football field to be built on a parking lot to the south of the previous Anglo buildings. The complex will include spectator stands, netball and basketball courts. A first of its kind in the inner city.
Johannesburg’s Real Asset
Apart from the climate, it is the people who make this city. With its kaleidoscope of cultures and languages, on a one-to-one level (taking the politicians and navigating the traffic out of the discussion), Joburgers are open, friendly and accommodating. Liz at Lancaster recently hosted US guests interested in design textiles and crafts. After chatting with them we drew up an “art route”. I took them to the Wits Art Museum and left them in the glorious treasure chamber of The Centre for Book Arts to make their way back via Kim Sacks Art Gallery to Liz at Lancaster. The next morning at breakfast I asked how it all went. Out tumbled “Guess where we had supper last night …. At Kim Sacks’ home”. It transpired that, still in awe and wonderment of the artists’ books, they had moved on to Kim Sacks Gallery, where they met Kim, who in true Jozi open-house hospitable mode, said “Why don’t you join us for supper at my home tonight”. Which they did. There aren’t many places in the world this would happen.
Home is where they understand you
Joburg hosts several annual book fairs which typically include multiple panel discussions by authors. Last year the last panel of the day at the Kingsmead Book Fair brought a particularly South African experience. Three authors spoke about their books, dealing with ideas of home, place and belonging. Katlego Thulare briefly touched on his current employment as a content creator, his interest in brand management and how he had decided to self-publish his book.
But mostly he spoke about his early life. Born to two teenage parents in a rural Limpopo village, he grew up in his Koko’s [Grandmother] house. The respect and love with which he spoke of his young struggling parents was humbling. And his sense of the richness of being brought up in a community, permeated his account.
But what was remarkable was the achingly funny way in which he turned difficulties and challenges into truly funny situations through language, timing and close observation of human foibles and frailties – the mark of a good comedian.
When it came to question time at the end of the panel discussion, I asked for the mic. I clarified that mine was not a question, but rather a comment. That for me, home is where they understand you. I said that although Katlego and I were far removed in terms of age, gender, upbringing, race, history and demographics, he made me really laugh and connect on a human level. I “got” him and he would probably “get” me. And for me – that is what ‘home’ means.
Feeling “rich” and “filled up” at the end of a wonderful day, I started to make my way ‘homewards’. Behind me, I heard: “Mam’ excuse me”. I thought I’d dropped something and turned to see Katlego running after me with his large yellow book-packet in his hand saying, “I’d like you to have this as a gift as I so liked your comment”. I resisted at first, saying I couldn’t accept it, then said that I must pay for it. As he would not hear of this either, I accepted with sincere gratitude and emotion.
Jozi’s physical infrastructure is strained, even broken, but Jozi’s human infrastructure, its soft power, is resilient.
We look forward to welcoming you back in the not-too-distant future.
From us all at Liz at Lancaster